The Mis-Adventures of the Glow-Go-Boy

Not so straight from the ATL, mixing one electric personality with a dash of humorous wit commenting on life, the universe, and everything.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Atlanta Pride 2005

SO this past weekend was Atlanta PRIDE (gosh I love PRIDE) and Arkansas came down to check it out. I actually had purchased tickets on Friday night to the Atlanta Symphony to go see "Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy" and we RUSHED out the door when he pulled in to go see it.

I thought that a concert of video game music was just about the COOLEST thing. Nobuo Uematsu is definitely a genius and I have been a fan of the video game series since it first came to the states as Final Fantasy I on the NES (8-bit system). I have beaten every US Final Fantasy except for FF8 and FFX-2 (which I really need to go back and play otherwise I lose my true fan status). They had videos from the game series playing on large projector screens (I wish they had blended more footage together so that it lasted the whole song...there is definitely enough CGI animations within the series to go more than 30 seconds).

Friday after the concert, we sped home, cleaned up and were out the door in 30 minutes (a record for me) and off to "The Jungle" for their "Studio54" themed party. I love this event (they had it last year) and I wore my super gay metallic mesh silver shirt and my blue LED belt with a pair of jeans. A fun outfit and it very well could have fit in back in the real day of Studio54. We met a few of my lez-beans friends out there and got a bit toasty off of some green apple martinis.

Saturday we got up and trundled on over to my friend DG's house for a pool party. There were lots of softball people there and I had a good time. There was lots to drink (are you seeing a theme for this weekend?) and some barbeque chicken and pork. About 4PM A was ready to go so we went home and crashed on the couch, debated for about 5 minutes about going out, and finally decided to put in a DVD and continue parking our phat asses on the couch.

Sunday we woke up to a misty rain and scooched on over to Publix to grab some turnover bites to bring to a PRIDE brunch at B&M's apartment which is situated RIGHT on the park where the Atlanta PRIDE festival is held. We grabbed a final cocktail (again, continuing the theme for the weekend) and went to browser the vendor booths. I found a booth with hand made glass jewelry pendants and I bought a really nice one for $30 but couldn't resist and went back later and bought two less expensive ones for $20. Hand made jewelry is my favorite because you can be fairly guaranteed that someone won't be wearing the same thing you have on. We picked up a couple of frozen margaritas and some various advertising trinkets.

Then we moved our way through the park toward 10th Street to catch the parade. It was fairly interesting this year. Not as "nice" as I would like it to be personally...I guess I am jealous of the really expensive parades like the Rose Bowl parade and the like. I wish that some businesses would put out some cash and some talent and really make some nice floats. I am SURE that there are lez-beans with power tools and the homos with their creativity and ability to make amazing things out of a toothpick and some toilet paper (me thinks I have been watching too much Trading Spaces and House Invaders).

After the parade, we moseyed around the booths again and it was time for A to go home so we drove home, got a bite to eat at the chinese restaurant and he left leaving me debating if I wanted to go back and watch the finale Starlight Cabaret. Well...after popping 4 ibuprofins I said to myself "get OUT...its freaking PRIDE damnit!" and jumped in the car and met my lez-beans out at the park.

About halfway through the show, I got a bit tired (of watching these two youngling lesbians perform clothed oral sex on each other) and went home about 10:30PM to make sure I knew where I had to give a presentation at on Monday morning :)

Monday morning I gave a presentation on a system I helped develop for work. It was fun and I attended their closing dinner at Fernbank museum, got a bit buzzed (apparently the weekend theme spilled over into another day) and stayed to enjoy their closing speakers as well as a really cool IMAX movie.

It's already the hump day, and I am simply CRAVING going back to the gym. I read that it's a good idea to take a week off every 8 or so weeks and I hadn't taken one off since November so I figured my body needed a break if I am going to continue this. I'm serious that it's like having withdrawl from endorphins or something because I can't WAIT until Friday when I can go back again :) Although maybe...maybe it's just getting to see the hot boys in the gym or the sauna I am missing *grin*

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

The Mr. Hotlanta Softball Pageant

SO...yours truly was the default "Mr." contestant for our team (no one else really wanted to do it) so I got up on stage and attempted to strut what stuff I have. :)

I did get a few "gosh, I didn't know all that was under there" and quite honestly I had a couple of green apple martinis so things weren't quite registering in my noggin ANYWAY. I did get to flirt with Kyle from the Talons (who is a total hottie to me) and his little (stress on the "little") fantasy wear outfit had me rolling. It was basically a thong with a little UPS box holding his...well...his package. ROTFL :)

Looking back on that, it was kind of a non-event. Worthwhile from the perspective that IF (big if) my softball team goes to the Gay Softball World Series, we will get a cut of the profits from that show. I would freaking LOVE to play shortstop in the GSWS as it would be a considerable challenge!

SO the kitchen is almost done (gotta take pictures tonight!). I have a little wiring work to do (new outlets and wallswitch) and then I can start paying off my credit cards.

The ex asked to go to dinner so it should be an interesting Thursday evening. I have pretty much avoided that bump on the road of life for a bit so it's probably time to mend a few fences and put some closure on it.

Arkansas is still around but he mentioned the other day that his next contract job could be in Wyoming or Colorado. That sucks in a way, but I think that I had actually prepared for that possibility (knowing that is what his job IS). I'm excited he's coming down for Atlanta PRIDE in two weeks and I am taking him to the Atlanta Symphony to hear Dear Friends: Music from the Final Fantasy Series. And then we have a pool party at DG's house on Saturday and Pride @ the Park later that day possibly and on Sunday we have a Brunch before the big parade. A busy weekend indeed!

The rest of this week should be pretty quiet and Universe knows it needs to be. I pulled something in my back sleeping last night and it is KILLING me. The dang sauna at the gym was being cleaned so I didn't get to use it to try to alleviate whatever the heck is wrong so I guess it's a beer and a few ibuprofin tonight :)

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

The Challenge of the Challenge

So two weekends ago was the Hotlanta Softball Challenge and I was pretty damn tired.

Having been super-volunteer for the league this year, I offered my services as volunteer coordinator since I figure I can be pretty bossy and why not put that skill to good use? :) I thought it was going to be easier than it was...HOOEY was I ever wrong about that.

So Friday I started the day with a work meeting, but after that I took a 1/2 day vacation since I had chores to run around and do for the Challenge. I had to drop back home, get my luggage (as I was staying at the host hotel) and get the Mackie 450s (powered speakers) from the rental place. Once I got those into the hands of one of the DJ's, I drove back downtown to the Georgia Tech Hotel and conference center to start helping the board for the weekend's tournament.

Once I got there I was put to work making banners that said stuff like "Welcome to the Challenge" and "Thank You Fans" and the like. It felt like a trip back to high-school homecoming :) Once that was done I had to run to the business center and make some quick labels for some binders for the coaches (the lady was nice enough to let me in although they were closed...ah...it's fortunate I'm so adorable *giggle*).

After that I did some additional secretarial work that they needed done and finished coloring in my large banners. Once finished, I went up to the Challenge registration area where there was open bar and lots of people were congregating after signing up (nothing like free liqour to get a party started) where two of my friends were DJing (and did a great job for it being their first time). I personally had to sample the free liqour to make sure our guests were getting good stuff. *mischevious smile*

After pretty much meeting over 100 people (I get very extroverted after a few cocktails) I settled into just making sure things ran smoothly. Things went off without a hitch pretty much until about 11:00 when people started heading out to the bars and my volunteers were getting restless. There weren't too many new registrants so we let them go early and a few of the board members and I hung out until 12 (which is when we said we were closing registration).

After registration was closed, we decided that we had to get some food so we went over to Hong Kong Harbor for some chinese food at 1:30AM. :) When it's that late and you're hungry...it's the best food in the world...no matter what it is. :) After that I was tired and headed back to the hotel to crash in a major way since I had a 10:00AM game.

Saturday was what is called "Pool Play" which is basically jockeying for a good seed to start the double-elimination tournament in. We played two teams (and won) the "Grizzlies" (who had met most of my team before but I hadn't been there...great set of guys) and the "Purple Haze" who at the time I thought were pretty nice and funny. Boy...how first impressions can be deceiving...

Saturday night I went to Woofs for a drink but was home early since we had a 9AM game on Sunday.

So Sunday's first game was against the Purple Haze AGAIN (we were thinking do we get to play anyone else) and though it was a good game, their players were being downright assinine. I mean...I can handle talking smack and trying to unnerve the opposition (our coach always says that any sports game is 1/2 physical skills and 1/2 mental focus) but they were taking the cake. Our coaches decided to protest a few of their players (meaning that they didn't follow the rules and possibly had players that should not have been playing in the lowest division). We "won" the protest by SIX POINTS (which is alot) and they were pretty much kicked out of the tournament. It's a crappy way to "win" but honest ratings are important.

The second game of the day was against the Grizzlies (yet again) and we got beat. It was a fun game but it put us into the losers bracket against the Ft. Lauderdale Heat. Well we WON that game and then played against the Nashville Chute Shock and won AGAIN (by this time we had been playing for 4.5 hours total that day). Winning in a tournament is a double-edged sword because we once again had to face off against the Portland Grizzlies. If we lost we were out of the tournament but if we won...we had to play a FULL seven innings against the Tampa Titans AND if we won we had to play ANOTHER full game of seven innings. Needless to say I was glad to be the last out of the tournament LOL :)

So the weekend was done and we placed Third :)

A week later (this past weekend) Arkansas came down for the weekend (yay) and we had a nice time watching "Revelations" together and we went out and met with some of my friends and had food all over the place. He wanted to see Atlanta "downtown" and I showed him exactly WHY I don't go downtown :) We also drove around Buckhead and I showed him the hoity toity area. :) He even woke up early on Sunday to be a "softball wife" for a weekend LOL :) From what I can tell it's still somewhat "casual dating" I guess. He's hard to read and I am NOT going to assume anything. I want to be the type of guy that isn't clingy and ready to jump on that U-Haul LOL :) "Just Dating" is not an ugly word. *laugh*

Now my current adventure is that I am a contestant in the "Mr HSL Pageant" of which I am certain I won't win, but in the least my team will get money for being in the show. What's a little public humiliation when you possibly have a World Series trip in your future to pay for? (third time for me...can I shoot myself now? :) We won't know for a few weeks if we are going for sure BUT we are in first place now and if we keep it up...then we're going. I think it's time to start endurance training...ugh.